"Plebgate" Survey Reveals 26 Percent of the British Public Are Less Likely To Trust The Police

A recent ComRes survey - on behalf of the BBC - which interviewed 1,000 British adults by telephone between the 18th and 20th October 2013, shows one in four people (26%), in the wake of ‘Plebgate’, are ‘less likely’ to trust the police.

Although one in four people are less likely to trust the police following the incident, two thirds (67%) said it has made ‘no difference’ - 5% said the affair had increased their trust in the police.

Poll findings suggest that public trust still remains high, with four fifths (82%) saying they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly likely’ to believe officers speaking either on television or on the streets while on duty. However, there is a very slight gender split, with over four fifths (86%) of women ‘likely’ to trust the police, compared to 79% of men.

The majority of Britons (53%) say that generally, the police are open and honest about their conduct, but two in five (40%) think that the police seem to try to cover up wrong doing by those in its ranks.

‘Plebgate’ originally arose on the 19 September 2012, after Mr Andrew Mitchell left the office of Chief the Whip at 9 Downing Street – famously the street containing the official residence of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Mitchell, who was cycling, allegedly swore when a police officer told him to exit Downing Street through the pedestrian gate rather than by the main gate.

The three officers accused by the IPCC of having tried to discredit Mr Mitchell are due to appear before MPs on the influential Home Affairs Select Committee on Wednesday.

Sign up for free insights from your sector…

Antispam code: 15620

Support Us..

We hope that you have found this article useful. This section is freely available for all to use. Please help support it by liking us or following us on our social media platforms:

Share this article..

For updated Public Consultation insights please follow us on @DJS_PubConsult or use our RSS feed

Brits are cracking down on their personal finances, according to recent survey

Best in class...

...for market research. We achieved the highest overall combined score (500+ companies applied) and secured a place on every single lot of the Crown Commercial Service framework. Read More

Accreditations

Charity of the year

DJS Research Ltd is a full service market research company offering qualitative and quantitative insights to consumer and business to business clients across the public, private and third sectors. We provide insight to the UK, Europe and across global markets.